A Gamer's Lament

I grew up on video games.

I remember the excitement of our family's first system, an Atari 2600, being turned on for the first time. I remember watching with envy as my friend showed me his brand new NES. I remember pride when my brother and I raised the money to buy a Genesis for ourselves, and I have recently been on a major retro gaming kick, assembling a collection of older systems and games to enjoy.

(I'm currently replaying Metroid Prime. It's doing a lot to help me believe that Metroid: Other M never existed. Except that now I have mentioned it. Crap.)

Sadly, though, right now Gaming is getting noticed for reasons that have nothing to do with the game and everything to do with internet loners feeling that they are losing control of the medium they once considered their own. Where once only children and adult losers played video games, my generation grew up with them, and far from giving them up, got more refined with our tastes. But there remain those who want to remain the kings of the genre even as its stock rises, and these seem to be the ones who have the biggest problem with those who question what becomes laughingly referred to as "gaming culture."

I know gaming culture. Gaming culture is a kid gripping the controller as he tries to beat a level, or a shout of joy from friends as one trounces another in a party game. It is a barely contained squeak as a survival horror game scares you, or a groan of frustration as that one boss beats you AGAIN without a reasonably close saved game.

It's not about keeping women or minorities in their place. It's not about shouting slurs into a microphone. And it's sure as hell not about threatening and harassing people who disagree with you online.

Probably no one will care about this post. This is a Pastor's blog about questions of faith and religion and I doubt any of the people I mentioned read my posts. But I hope more and more internet personalities join in on what some have started by writing posts like these, particularly those of us who grew up gaming and would like it to grow up with us. (And by grow up, I mean learn to play well with others, not swear a lot and go to nudie bars.)

And in case someone out there does care about my opinion, and are in some way on the fence about this, maybe this'll help them take these steps to being better, as well.